Police reshuffle not to be limited to central office

Interior Ministry Vladimir Kolokoltsev set the tasks for his new deputies, appointed the other day

Share

1 pages in this article

MOSCOW, June 19 (Itar-Tass) — President Vladimir Putin fired several senior police officials at the weekend and on Monday. Interior Ministry Vladimir Kolokoltsev set the tasks for his new deputies, appointed the other day.

The mass resignations at the Interior Ministry after the appointment of new minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev will not be limited to the central office, the RBK Daily writes. The newspaper leant that there would be dismissals in the regions following the resignation of deputy interior ministers.

"A number of regional departments' chiefs will be relieved of their duties in the near future; mostly the representatives of the so-called Omsk group," an Interior Ministry source told the RBK Daily. It was led by Omsk residents Alexander Smirnov and Igor Alyoshin, who had to step down as deputy ministers the other day. There are more than twenty natives of Omsk across the country who were promoted to Generals with Smirnov and Alyoshin's support.

Bashkortostan's police chief Mikhail Zakomaldin is expected to be the first swallow in the new wave of resignation. After the dismissal of Deputy Interior Minister Igor Alyoshin, the position of Karelia police chief Vasily Kukushkin is as unstable.

Vladimir Kolokoltsev outlined some of the strategic tasks for his department, the Kommersant reports. Human resources is one of the most important issues. "No structural arrangements, methods of administration or regulations can give the desired result without careful and daily personnel management work," the minister said, "Only one team, a well-coordinated professional collective is a token of personal success of each employee, and the most importantly, the guarantor of effective work to protect the safety of our citizens."

Vladimir Kolokoltsev demanded that his subordinates eradicate the concealment of crimes and accidents involving police, and stop forcing the subordinates into resigning voluntarily in case they commit an offense, or antedating their dismissal to the date of actual offense. Careful checks are necessary into each case, and the public must be duly informed, the minister underlined.